I was out on a routine job patrolling a remote area of the park when I saw it. The small but unmistakable opening of a cave. Since it wasn’t on any of the maps and it was my job to check things like that out, I wasted no time in taking out my flashlight and heading towards the smaller, but manageable cave opening that was wide enough for me to step through without having to crouch down.
The cave was situated in a clearing close to a pond. The opening was located right in the middle of a wall of sandstone and was fairly unremarkable looking. No sign that it was dangerous or out of the ordinary. Since the opening was barely wide enough for several people to step through, that meant the cave had never been turned into a mine. There was also no garbage lying around or any other traces of recent human activity. So for all I knew, I was the first human being to set foot in this cave in who knows how long. The feeling came with a sense of exhilaration I’d never felt before.
So I took a deep breath, switched on my extra strength flashlight, and steadily started walking inside. My first few steps in the cave were beyond cautious. Aside from the fact I’d never been here before, the terrain was very steep. You could feel it slowly descending further into the earth.
Since I didn’t want to lose my footing and go tumbling down, I kept casting the flashlight beam around. Because despite the intense glaring light it provided, the darkness in the cave was unlike anything I had ever seen before. I’d been in the forest at night many times, but this far exceeded that. This darkness was dense.
After enough careful steps, the descent became smoother, and the floor leveled out. The cave floor itself was rough in some spots and smooth in others. You could tell where the elements had weathered away parts of the land and made a smoother path to walk. The temperature had also dropped significantly down here, and I could now see the many impressive stalactites and stalagmites dotting the cave.
The rough descent had been replaced by a fairly even path straightforward, but there wasn’t a ton of space to walk around here. A small group of people could squeeze through, but no more than that. My boots occasionally crunched on gravel, but apart from that, the cave floor was empty. Almost uncannily clean.
Seeing how untouched the cave was, it can’t help but make you feel like an insignificant speck in the vast scheme of the universe. The cave was not only far older than I was, it would be here long after I was gone. Especially because the cave seemed endless. The more I explored, the more I got the sense that I was making no progress at all.
A look at my watch told me I’d been down there for about an hour when the narrow path opened into a massive chamber and the sight made me gasp. The entire space was filled with water, and the walkway served as a makeshift bridge to the other side. The walls were roughhewn and jagged virtually everywhere you looked. There had been plenty of impressive stalactites in the cave, but the ones dangling from the ceiling here were massive. So precise and sharp looking it seemed impossible that they had occurred naturally. Some of them were practically touching the water that filled the space. I had no idea how deep the water was, but in the thick darkness, it looked unnervingly deep.
The walkway that went from one side of the cavern to the other got rougher here, but it still looked as steady and weathered as before. So, being more careful of where I stepped than ever, I slowly began to cross the cavern. I was almost halfway across when I heard the sound of a rock hit a cavern wall and splash into the water.
The sound in the empty space seemed so uncannily loud I almost jumped. Once I was sure of my footing, I carefully shined the flashlight around to check.
There was nothing. No signs that anything at all had happened. But on this job, you learn that just because everything looks fine doesn’t mean nothing is going on. The hair standing up on the back of my neck told me everything I needed to know. I didn’t dare take another step forward. If anything, I was slowly adjusting my footing to turn back around.
I was just about to go back the way I came when I heard it. The sound of whispered voices.
At first, I had no idea what it was. I hadn’t heard a single sound before now aside from my own footsteps.
Ignoring the chill slowly washing over me, I slowly began to walk back across the cavern. I’m not sure if it was just my imagination, but as I did, the whispering got louder. The creepiest part was how the voice seemed faintly familiar. Not enough so I recognized it, but enough that it was unsettling. The worst part was that I had absolutely no idea where the voice was coming from. The acoustics of the cave made it seem like the voice was both everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
I was almost completely across the cavern when I cast my flashlight around and saw it. There, on the left side of the cavern in the middle of the dark water, was a shadow. With my heart pounding in my chest and the grip on my flashlight slick from sweat, I carefully turned and aimed the beam directly at it.
The water illuminated was a murky grey, but the shape was as dark as it had been without the flashlight. I had no idea what the shape was. It was completely solid, but it wasn’t any sort of animal, and it didn’t look remotely human. It just hung there, floating just below the surface. If there had been the slightest suggestion of human activity here, I’d say it was garbage, a blanket, or some clothing that fell in the water. But I knew that wasn’t the case. The sight made my stomach clench.
But then, with my flashlight still aimed right at it, it disappeared. There was no movement or any disturbance in the water. It just vanished.
That was my cue to leave. Once I was safely across the cavern and on solid ground, I ran out of there as fast as I could due to the numerous rock formations I had to maneuver around. It seemed to take an eternity. I periodically checked behind me to make sure there was nothing there, and while there never was, I could never shake the feeling that something was watching me.
After what seemed like a painfully long time, I finally arrived back at the cave opening. Then came the difficult task of maneuvering what was essentially an uphill climb. By now I was drenched in sweat and the climb did nothing to help that. But taking care with where and when I stepped, I eventually was standing at the mouth of the cave with daylight coming through.
I gratefully walked out into the sunshine and looked down into the cave. As I did, I swear I saw a figure walk past on the cave floor below. But when I looked back, it was gone.
Once I caught my breath, I radioed the cave discovery into the station and some other rangers came out to check it out. One of them was my boss, Jack. I told them I didn’t see anything, but one look at me and my demeanor told them something was up.
Jack was no stranger to the unusual things park rangers can and do encounter on the job. So with him and the other two rangers listening, I told them what I saw and experienced down in the cave. When I was done, Jack sat there quietly for a moment.
“Doesn’t matter if its 2022 or 1822, things still go bump in the night,” he said in his deep, steady voice.
“I don’t disagree.” I muttered.
“I’m sure you don’t Wade. I won’t pretend I saw what you saw, but I believe you saw what you saw. Nature can be, and often is, a very scary place.”
“No kidding.” One of the other rangers agreed.
“There’s a reason this cave looked so untouched by people. No sign of animals either?”
“None.”
Jack shook his head at that. “That’s the sign something is off. Animals don’t go near something, that means people shouldn’t either. So we’ll mark this cave as dangerous, go back to base, and log the find. Now let’s get out of here.”